Tough Customer
by Mistflyer1102
Summary: In which Alpha Team learns that not every prisoner is going to resist interrogation, and that even the smallest misunderstanding can lead to the wrong impression. Which could end in a slight... problem when deciding the question of innocence versus guilt.


Tough Customer

The stars glittered in the midnight sky above the National Mall, and the white light of the full moon reflected on the early morning dew on the wide expanse of grass. The expanse of land between Capitol Hill, the Washington Memorial, and the Lincoln Memorial appeared as though cleansed by the moonlight, the light combined with the water droplets in an effort to restore the area to its natural pure state. A faint breeze rustled across the grasses, creating a series of whispers across the plants amidst the chirping of the crickets. It was enough to lull one to sleep, with a few fluffy clouds drifting across the night sky above while the peace settled around the area, creating a soft cocoon of peace.

This picturesque scene stood out in stark contrast with the city surrounding it. Buildings lay half-collapsed near empty tractors and demolition trucks, and debris still littered the street. An empty sedan lay on its side, the once green paint now blackened on twisted metal and the cushions open and spilling burned padding all over the interior. A small pink teddy bear remained hanging inside the car, its arm caught in the passenger door that was facing the sky. The car that the sedan had collided with was still in its resting place, the back end sticking out of the storefront window. Down the glass and metal-littered streets, a few more cars remained piled on top of one another, the broken and gaping windows eerily similar to missing teeth. The scene was similar on the other side of the Mall, he remembered, as well throughout major parts of the United States capital. It wasn't a nanomite warhead that did the damage, nor was it a protest-turned-riot.

Snake Eyes actually had no idea precisely what caused the damage. Hawk had commed the team saying that the Secretary of Defense had outright threatened Hawk with two rapid-fire demotions if Hawk so much as thought about sending in his own team to investigate the destruction. Enough people were on it already, so there was no need to go into it as well.

Snake Eyes cast his steady gaze from the scenes of destruction down to the narrow street that he was guarding. As dead as the city appeared to be at this time of night, there were still a few… unsavory establishments open for the nighttime clientele of Washington DC. He exhaled slowly; the target was taking her sweet time leaving the building. His gaze didn't leave the front door as he slowly stretched his muscles before becoming still again. He had completed a recon of the building hours before the target even arrived for the evening. The only unknown variable was the amount of time the target chose to spend inside the building. Granted, there were a certain someone already inside the bar in order to nudge things along and 'encourage' the target to leave early, as in before three in the morning.

Snake Eyes didn't move when the door to the bar finally did open and light spilled out along with a slightly intoxicated woman, her long thin coat loosely draped around her shoulders. "Good – _hic_ – night everyone," she managed to drag out in a horrible imitation of a Texan drawl. After regaining her feet and balance, she shook her head as though to shake the sleepiness out of her eyes, and the began walking with a slight weave to her path while pulling out a small cell phone. "Heeeeyyyy Lex! I need a lift 'cause I can't even walk straight… eleven? I don't know, I lost my watch in a card game… oh, I didn't know my cell phone had a watch…yikes," the woman said as she pulled the phone away and stared at the screen before putting it back. Then she frowned and snapped the phone shut before stuffing it into her pocket. "Stupid service," she muttered as she put the phone in her pocket. Or at least tried to. The phone fell from her fingers and landed on the sidewalk. Oblivious to the loss of her device, the target continued walking down the street, swaying her shoulders to an invisible beat.

Snake Eyes abandoned his post almost before the target walked around the corner. He didn't need to turn and see that the abandoned cell phone was already on its way back to Breaker for an investigation of all its contacts; he knew that Heavy Duty was waiting nearby for such an opportunity. This agent had to be a novice, perhaps a student under another intelligence agent; no Cobra agent would be stupid enough to leave his or her phone out in the open like that. Cobra may have been a new criminal organization, but Snake Eyes was ready to bet that they didn't hire idiots.

A brief high-pitched giggle reminded Snake Eyes of the target's other problem. She was intoxicated. Snake Eyes finally dared to hope that she wasn't going to cause as much of a problem for the Joe team as she'd been doing for the last couple of days.

"Taxi!" the woman shouted to the empty street before straightening. "Right… this isn't New York City. Gotta walk home…I wonder where my apartment is," she said after a few moments of simply standing there in the dark. Snake Eyes found himself tensing up; was the target now baiting them? It was almost a week since the team was originally tasked with the mission, and the target was throwing in the towel just like that? Even after all the grief she gave them and sending Ripcord to the hospital she was giving up just like that? If he hadn't seen the evidence for himself, he would have assumed that Alpha Team was chasing the wrong person.

Appearances can be deceiving.

The young target seemed to notice Heavy Duty standing off to her right so she turned toward the left. Toward Snake Eyes.

Even though the Cobra organization was young and their leaders imprisoned, the heads of the military weren't going to put it past any loyal Cobra remnants to attempt a rescue. It was the Army Chief of Staff who recommended keeping it low-key from the President for a little while, while the Chiefs of Staff could warn a select few subordinates about the potential threat. A few weeks later, Joseph Thayer, the Air Force Chief of Staff and famous for his legendary patience, emailed Hawk saying that an anonymous officer in the United States Air Force suspected a lieutenant of treason, and had sent a few recordings from tapped phone calls. The lieutenant's imperfect track record only seemed to confirm Hawk's suspicions, and finally Alpha Team was tasked with bringing the lieutenant in. There were only a few obstacles along the way, including the surprise attack on Washington DC. The one obstacle the team kept bumping into however was the lieutenant's tenacity. Capture and interrogation were usually not items of preference on a person's itinerary, but it was as though the target had a ingrained radar in her mind for anyone trying to arrest her. Her friend used to provide the extra pair of eyes until she left the target for some reason or another.

What Hawk failed to mention to the Air Force Chief of Staff was that an Air Force colonel had already asked Hawk to bring Aliskevicz in for questioning only to write a heartfelt apology to Hawk for making an error; she'd intended for her captain to receive the initial email, not Hawk. Circulating rumors said that the lieutenant was a bundle of trouble sometimes, and usually the captain was tasked with bringing her back into line. The anonymous officer, who had tipped off Hawk through Thayer, reported that the lieutenant however was managing to keep her illegal activities quiet from the captain, the colonel, and her acting general.

Now the target was wandering around the capital city at midnight with no phone, no ride, and no money. Snake Eyes figured if she could be taken quickly and quietly, then Alpha Team could complete their mission with minimal fuss.

The target came to a stop before she reached Snake Eyes's hiding place. He had shimmied down from the rooftop and was waiting patiently in a blind alley for her to walk by, but she had stopped in her tracks. She sent another look in Heavy Duty's direction, her face now hidden by the coat's hood, before avoiding both by stepping out into the empty street. She walked purposefully across the empty road and onto the grass of the National Mall and then came to stop. Snake Eyes tensed, ready for pursuit, but then paused when the target turned to her left, and continued walking down the sidewalk as though nothing were wrong. He cast a glance in the direction he knew Heavy Duty was in before slipping from his hiding place and trailing the target as she walked down the street with no apparent destination in mind. The ninja was careful to use the ghostly wrecks as shields as he began to 'herd' the target toward where Scarlett and Clutch were waiting. At least the target's instincts were working. When it came down to the fight-or-flight response, her file described her as a 'flight' person when off-duty, but Snake Eyes knew better than to underestimate her. The rather deadly flowerpot a couple days ago was a testament to her 'fight' instinct.

The target turned the corner, and was now opting for a narrower and emptier street than the one she'd just been on. While there were more alleys available for Snake Eyes's use, there were also no destroyed cars to use as shields or enable Heavy Duty to continue the pursuit through the street. Still, the ninja had no problem melting into the darkness of the quiet buildings and sidewalks. The only lamppost was sputtering as it struggled to continue generating light, but like the target, Snake Eyes was relying more on the steady moonlight for the light source.

"Oh, _come on!_" the target unexpectedly yelled before taking off, running down the sidewalk since her life did in fact depend on it. Without hesitation Snake Eyes began running after her, using cars as a springboard to gain more ground in the chase.

The target was almost to the end of the street when Scarlett appeared around the corner, Clutch appearing around the opposite corner. Unlike Snake Eyes, Scarlett, and Heavy Duty, the tank driver was wearing civilian clothes. The target, eyes wide, ran straight into a surprised Clutch with a heavy _whumpf_.

"Hey there gorgeous, not every day a lovely lady… _dammit!"_ Clutch swore as the target dug her elbow into his gut in her attempt to escape, but then grinned as Snake Eyes fluidly pinched several nerve bundles in the woman's shoulders that left her immobilized in a compromising position on top of the tank driver.

There was momentary silence as Scarlett and Heavy Duty walked up to the target and Clutch. Then the woman said, "This… this is an incredibly awkward tableau, but for some reason, I can't seem to move my limbs to hit you where it counts."

"You're allowed to lie around at your leisure, milady," Clutch said as he continued to grin broadly at the target, who moaned in agony as Heavy Duty knelt to pick her up by the collar. "Aw, Heavy Duty, we were just getting to know each other…"

"Save it for the ride home Clutch," Heavy Duty snapped. He turned around and held the target out so that Scarlett could double-check that they had the right one.

Scarlett raised an eyebrow as she stepped slightly closer to the woman, who was still muttering incoherent threats to Clutch. It was the same one, she noted, who had thrown the flowerpot at both Ripcord and Snake Eyes only a few days before. The ninja had walked away from that attack unscathed. Ripcord on the other hand was knocked out into next week. That was a good sign; in the last four days, the team already accidentally either tried to arrest or pursued at least four or five women who matched Aliskevicz's physical profile. One of them, Captain Alexis Preston, had been Aliskevicz's friend and superior officer and was rather irked that she'd been mistaken for the other woman. From what the captain told Scarlett however, the confusion happened often.

"Lieutenant Aliskevicz, you are officially under arrest for treason against the United States in the aiding and abetting of international terrorists," Scarlett said coolly, and the woman stopped wiggling around in Heavy Duty's grip long enough to stare dumbfounded at the other woman.

"Huh?" she said, and Scarlett knew they had the right suspect this time. Preston said that Aliskevicz responded to surprising news with a lack of an intelligent reaction. At least it took the lieutenant's mind off of Snake Eyes handcuffing her hands behind her back.

"Consider yourself lucky, we don't make a habit of leaving terrorist agents in one piece when they try to evade arrest for four days," Scarlett said as Snake Eyes positioned himself behind the lieutenant in preparation to knock her out. Clutch at this point had the sense to get up off the ground and was now standing away from Scarlett as he waited for them to get moving again.

Still bemused and caught off guard, the lieutenant managed another 'huh?' before Snake Eyes deftly pinched another bundle of nerves and the lieutenant finally sagged in silence. Heavy Duty then swung her over his shoulder to make transportation back to their temporary base easier. Business finished, Scarlett finally allowed herself a small smile as Snake Eyes slipped from his place in the shadows and appeared at her side. "Nice work," she said to the ninja, who nodded. Suddenly aware of Clutch's intense stare, she turned away and said, "Come on everyone, chances are there is already someone looking for her. Before I left the van, Breaker told me that the woman she called, the captain we spoke to already, attempted to call Aliskevicz back a few minutes ago. She might come looking next."

Silence followed the small group as they left the now empty and quiet street.

* * *

><p>The short car ride back to the temporary base was silent, broken only by the merry trilling of Aliskevicz's cell phone ringing every five minutes. As he read the number that came up on the caller ID, Breaker kept shaking his head at Scarlett, who bit back a sigh. There were at least three different phone numbers calling the cell phone, and the voice messages the callers left were from different people; one being the captain that Aliskevicz apparently called right after leaving the bar, and the second one being Colonel Stanton, who was starting to leave varied threats in her messages. What had Scarlett slightly nervous was the third caller, a high-ranking general who was becoming agitated at the lack of response from the lieutenant.<p>

"Easy Scarlett, the general doesn't know about the crimes that Aliskevicz committed," Heavy Duty said from where he was sitting in the driver's seat, his voice breaking into her thoughts. She nodded in his direction before looking back at the slumped lieutenant.

Snake Eyes was sitting right next to the lieutenant in order to prevent an attack in the event she came back to the world of the living and was now faking unconsciousness. Which Scarlett seriously doubted. Clutch meanwhile was enjoying Aliskevicz's company; at some point in the trip, when the van made a sharp turn, Aliskevicz had moved so that she was now using Clutch's shoulder as a pillow. Scarlett had no doubt that Clutch was thanking all the deities he believed in that Heavy Duty volunteered for driving and a lovely young woman was in close proximity to him without trying to punch him across the jaw.

"New number," Breaker said as the phone trilled again. He studied the display and said, "Massachusetts area code, I'll cross-reference it." He turned back to his laptop and began searching through online phone book instead of accessing the database he had at his disposal. "The number belongs to a Ms. Mary Reardon of Boston. Her mother most likely," he said as the phone emitted a faint _ping_, indicating that the call went to voicemail. Sixth ping that night too. Scarlett opened her mouth to ask another question, but shut it when the phone began to trill _again_. Breaker sighed before returning to phonebook, checking with the number appearing on her cell phone. "Tyler Collins, former Air Force pilot, decommissioned because of permanent injuries," he said as he studied the display. He raised an eyebrow and said, "How much do you want to bet that the colonel is going to call again? Out of all them she is the most frequent caller."

Clutch snorted. "Sorry, I'm saving my money for any ninja-related betting pools that Ace comes up with. That and it's looking like I'll have to procure around five hundred for his latest bet," he said, averting his eyes when Scarlett looked at him in curiosity. As far as she knew, Ace was unusually quiet on the betting front for the last couple of weeks.

"What's the new one?" she asked, frowning slightly.

Clutch grimaced. "For the sake of keeping my internal organs where they belong, _inside_ my body, I'm going to have to say 'no comment' on that one," he said, the sentence ending in a mumble as Snake Eyes turned to face him.

"I'll ask Ace then, when we get back to the Pit," Scarlett said, her eyes narrowing slightly in suspicion as Clutch turned to rub the lieutenant's shoulder in a too-friendly manner. However, she felt that she didn't need to ask what betting pool Ace was currently running; she was almost completely sure that it had something to do with her relationship with Snake Eyes and Ripcord. Maybe she could ask someone back at the Pit to find out the exact details.

"You do that," Clutch said off-handedly as he smirked at the lieutenant, who was just beginning to come to. But another nerve-pinch encouraged her to flop her head back on Clutch's shoulder. The tank driver was beginning to look like a Cheshire cat with his large grin at the constant female attention... even if it was unintentional.

The phone continued to ring even as the borrowed K9 unit finally arrived to the temporary base that Hawk had set up earlier that week, before the DC Crisis. Gritting her teeth, Scarlett resisted the urge to answer the phone and tell at least one caller to knock it off, but she didn't dare; there was always the chance that one of the callers was waiting for a resposne for the sole purpose of tracking the call. Alpha Team could not afford a rescue attempt at the moment, especially when they were so close to their goal.

The beep sounded, indicating that the phone had gone to voicemail, and a familiar scary voice said with a slight hint of a snarl, "_**Aliskevicz, I swear to God if you are ignoring me to spite me, there will be no telling what I will do to you once you get back here. You have thirty minutes to respond before we send a SWAT team after you."**_

"Well, I'm glad I didn't take that bet," Clutch said after the colonel hung up again. He shuddered and said, "Well, we know we have a deadline now, right?"

"No, we just know when people will start looking for her," Scarlett said as Snake Eyes straightened in his seat. "Is Lady Jaye ready?" she asked as Heavy Duty punched the code into the control panel outside the driver's door so that they could enter the small compound.

"Yes, she's hoping that the questioning will go smoothly, especially since one, we have Snake Eyes here, and two, the prisoner is buzzed from alcohol anyway. No dragging feet through mud in order to get answers," Breaker said in a slightly grim tone.

As if she knew they were talking about her, the still unconscious lieutenant shifted in her seat, and seemed to draw closer to Clutch _right_ as the phone began to ring again. Scarlett was already reaching for the device to keep Aliskevicz from getting it when the woman just mumbled something under her breath before slipping back into silence. At this point, Scarlett suspected that Aliskevicz was now just sleeping the alcohol off. _Hopefully_ she wouldn't be lucid enough to resist Jaye's attempts to get through to her and obtain the answers the team wanted. Hawk however was not going to be present; .

"I hope her stubbornness goes as far as the fight-or-flight response, or we're going to have a real problem," Heavy Duty said as he parked the van in its parking slot. He walked over as Breaker stood up to move out of the way. "Snake Eyes, pop the back door. Clutch, give her to me," he ordered and then not-so-gently swung her over his shoulder again. Scarlett followed him out.

Scarlett paused to let Breaker and Clutch out, but then put out a hand to stop the tank driver. "What is it now?" he hissed as Breaker finally flipped the annoying cell phone open and turned the device completely off.

Scarlett gestured to his shoulder. "There's a little drool on your shoulder there," she said, and then got off the van while Clutch cursed in disgust and irritation.

Gravel crunched underfoot as the team made their way to the unmarked, unassuming little building near the edge of the parking lot. Predictably, Snake Eyes was already gone and was most likely already indoors; Scarlett had neither heard nor seen him since he opened the back doors to the van. She watched as the door swung open before Heavy Duty could get to them, and then Duke stepped out. He appeared tired in the lighting, but alert at the same time. It had been months since he and Ripcord both joined the team, but he was already in the swing of the routines at not only the Pit but out on missions as well. Scarlett figured that he would be at the hospital to at least make sure his old friend was all right, but then she realized that there was most likely another reason for his presence here.

"Is that her? Are you sure?" he said as Heavy Duty approached the door.

"Positive. People have been calling her all night," Heavy Duty said as Breaker held up the phone. "Superior officers, friends, family, the works."

"All right. Lady Jaye is waiting downstairs for her... how long has she been out?" Duke asked, eyeing the unconscious form on Heavy Duty's shoulder.

"Long enough to get well-acquainted with Clutch on the ride over," Scarlett said as she walked by Heavy Duty and around Duke. "Did Snake Eyes already go in?"

"Yes, and he scared Lady Jaye in the process by accident. Go on in, everyone is downstairs," Duke said, gesturing with a hand even as he moved aside to let the ordnance expert through the door.

Scarlett led the way. It was a narrow staircase, and muffled curses drifted throughout the stairwell as Clutch kept walking into Aliskevicz's head, and subsequently, Heavy Duty. What surprised her was when a drowsy yet familiar female voice joined in the cursing, especially a rather harsh one when Clutch made eye contact with the prisoner. Then there was a thump and then silence. Then; "Sorry guys, she just startled me when she woke up like that. She might be out for another couple of minutes."

"Clutch, we want answers, remember?" Lady Jaye said crossly as she came into view at the bottom of the stairs. Her brown hair was swept underneath a baseball cap, and she was wearing jeans and a T-shirt, and Scarlett guessed that her friend had been out and about in the city with Hawk or Duke earlier in the day. "We need solid information, not half-conscious answers that could make little to no sense until long after the fact something happens."

"Doesn't Snake Eyes know any tricks that wake her right up?" Clutch asked, and Scarlett glanced at the ninja in question, who had appeared right behind Lady Jaye. The latter did not seem to realize that he was standing there. A slight nod was his only response.

"Fine," Lady Jaye finally said as she stepped aside to let Heavy Duty and Scarlett through. Snake Eyes moved before she did, and was standing near Hawk when the small group entered the small cement room. A single table with two chairs were in the middle, and Heavy Duty deposited the prisoner on the side facing the back of the room. Lady Jaye sat down in the other chair as Breaker handed her a sheet that had the names of the cell phone callers and the number of times each person called. Lady Jaye raised an eyebrow as she studied the sheet while Aliskevicz came back to consciousness all on her own without Snake Eyes doing anything. The rest of Alpha Team were standing in the wings with the exception of Snake Eyes standing right behind her and Jaye in front of her. Scarlett herself was standing off to the side near the recorders with Breaker at the controls. Aliskevicz wouldn't be able to tell but Heavy Duty was standing right next to the only exit while Duke stood at Lady Jaye's side. Aliskevicz blinked when she saw the two directly in the line of her sight.

"Do I know you guys?" she asked drowsily. "You look really familiar."

"I doubt it," Lady Jaye said as she leaned back in her seat. "We just met after all."

Aliskevicz looked panicked for a few moments before leaning forward in her seat. No one had removed her handcuffs from her wrists, and she frowned as she experimented with her bonds. "Soo... what time is it? You probably know I'm in the army, but I'm also the _only_ person in the military with a curfew that's earlier than everyone else. One of my superiors threatened to send in a SWAT team after me once," she said after making herself comfortable in the chair.

Lady Jaye smiled pleasantly before asking, "While we're on the topic of your superior officers, mind giving me your rank and serial number?"

Aliskevicz leaned forward, and Snake Eyes tensed as though prepared to strike if harm was the lieutenant's intentions. "Between the two of us, we both know that not only do you have my rank, serial number, and name, but probably the names of my pals too, _so_, can we skip to the part where you start drilling me for info?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

Lady Jaye managed to cover her surprise at the request to begin the interrogation. "Do you understand why you are here?" she asked, folding her hands on top of the paper that Breaker had given her. At the lieutenant's head-shake, she said, "You are here for suspicion of committing treason against the United States."

Aliskevicz turned sheet white at the words, and her body instantly stiffened. Jaye managed to repress another smile at the almost instantaneous admission of guilt. "Now why did I have to be the only one to see this curveball coming?" Aliskevicz moaned as she let herself sag in her chair. Her eyes were still slightly glazed over, but her face was a picture of misery. "I told them, enjoy your fun now, but you know, one day someone is going to get arrested, he or she is going to crack under interrogation and there is going to be a helluva uproar in the Defense Department with people pointing fingers and screaming accusations and then the Secretary is gonna try and crack down on the fuss, which will only tick people off even more and then _everyone_ is going to get knocked down into a cool-off period..." the lieutenant stopped talking when she finally ran out of breath and fell silent again.

"Who were you talking to, when you said that it was going to go out of control?" Jaye asked conversationally in her best non-confrontational mode.

"My boss. And his boss. It was not a surprise when no one listened to me. I should just talk, you know? They've been asking for it ever since they tricked me into driving my car off Walker's Bridge while it was still under construction. Obviously I wasn't hurt, but _still_!" Aliskevicz said crossly, her red-rimmed eyes trying to focus on Duke and Lady Jaye. Duke meanwhile had given a quick hand signal to the ninja behind the prisoner, and Snake Eyes turned to Breaker to see that his teammate was already looking Walker's Bridge up on the Internet, just for information if not anything else.

"Who is this 'they' you keep referring to?" Jaye asked conversationally.

At the mention of 'they', Aliskevicz looked murderous. "My boss... and his boss. And his boss's boss too. We go any higher and we get to the Secretary of Defense, 'kay?" she said, nodding almost to herself.

Jaye didn't say anything, but her smile had frozen slightly. Snake Eyes tilted his head at Scarlett, who looked slightly shocked that the Secretary of Defense himself was involved. It made sense really, the Secretary of Defense would have access to the information that a high-level terrorist was imprisoned and as a result, know how to send agents in to free the Cobra Commander and Destro. Breaker paused in his work, and then logged onto the Pentagon database in order to contact Hawk and alert him to the threat. Hoping Aliskevicz missed the slight hesitation, Jaye leaned forward again and said, "So, who knows about what you do?"

Aliskevicz rolled her eyes. "My superior officers obviously. Then there's my fiancé, Tyler Collins but he's not in the military anymore because of injuries, so he doesn't know a lot, just a few facts that really have no impact on anything. Mom doesn't know anything, but the person you might want to talk to is Major William Lennox. He's the go-to guy with questions like that. Hell, he knows everything," she said, leaning back in her seat as comfortable as she could get without injuring her shoulders.

Jaye didn't twitch, but when Snake Eyes glanced at Breaker, the latter looked slighlty alarmed. It made sense for Cobra to infiltrate the United States military, so that they could wrest control away form the president when the time for the coup d'etat came... if it was coming.

"Any new operations coming up?"

"Yep. Something about bailing out one of the CO's that got into hot water a couple months ago," Aliskevicz said as her head nodded a bit, but she shook herself awake again. "Something about 'suspicious activities' that was really just us trying to keep everything under wraps, y'know?"

Jaye nodded slightly in agreement. "How long has your organization been in existence?" she asked.

"We-ell, if it's 2009 now... then... a year and a half? Parent organization has been around longer than that, I don't know how much longer," Aliskevicz said as she hung her head in an attempt to ease the nasty combination of exhaustion and hangover that she was clearly feeling. She frowned in an attempt to remember something else and then said, "How much did I drink? Everything up until this point is a blur... I thought I saw Spiderman's evil twin and this goofy guy who kept flirting with me the entire way back from wherever..."

Jaye didn't say anything and neither did Duke, but 'goofy' wasn't their first choice of an adjective for Clutch.

"I wasn't with you, so I don't know," Lady Jaye said apologetically. She leaned froward and said, "Another question. Have you ever spoken to a man who called himself 'the doctor' or heard anything about an organization called 'Cobra'?"

Aliskevicz shuddered violently in her seat. "Why would I want _anything_ to do with an organization that has to do with... _snakes_? I am _terrified _of snakes. And spiders. And anything else with more than four legs. Besides, what do snakes have to do with NEST?" she asked tilting her head at Lady Jaye in curiosity. The way she said the last word made Scarlett think of it in capital letters.

Lady Jaye also seemed caught off guard. "Nest? What about a nest?" she asked, frowning slightly.

Aliskevicz squinted at her. "You guys _are_ a part of the debriefing team, right? That's what this is-was right?" she said, looking anxious when Lady Jaye didn't reward her with an immediate answer.

"That depends, what are we debriefing you on?" Lady Jaye said, managing to recover almost immediately.

Aliskevicz turned white again in slight horror. "Oh man, they're so going to kill me this time around... look, whatever it was it wasn't my fault. DC freaking out wasn't my fault, I had nothing to do with this Cobra guy or organization or whatever the heck it is. I thought you were talking about something else I swear. Please leave Tyler alone, the guy can't even find the laundry machine his eyesight is so bad and he's still recovering from his injuries in the line of duty he was shot down a few months ago please just leave him alone. Look it up if you don't believe me. But I don't know about this Cobra group you're talking about. I also don't know who sicced you on me but whoever it is has issues with just me and I'll admit that I might have angered some Very Important People lately but..."

As her babbling continued, Snake Eyes briefly wished that Storm Shadow was there with them. Granted, the two of them were never on the best of terms for the majority of Snake Eyes's time at the Arashikage dojo, but on the few occasions that they were, Storm Shadow had mentioned about his uncanny hearing, that it was so well it could detect the liars from the those telling the truth. But he was gone now, lost somewhere in the depths of the Southern Ocean never to return.

Snake Eyes made up his mind and leaned forward. A few pressure points later, and Aliskevicz was once again out cold in her chair. Lady Jaye looked up at him with the question in her eyes, but it was Scarlett who spoke it aloud.

"Why did you knock her out?" she asked. It wasn't an accusation or a demand, but a simple question.

He pantomimed talking with his hand, and Scarlett nodded slowly. "She talks too much and would be a security risk for a terrorist organization, right?" she guessed and looked at Lady Jaye once Snake Eyes nodded in confirmation. "Do you think Praise might just have a vendetta against Aliskevicz, and tried to use us as a way of revenge?" she asked, using the name that the Air Force officer used when Hawk asked Thayer for a name of the person reporting the threat. "It did seem somewhat convenient," she said thoughtfully as she looked back at the slumped lieutenant.

Lady Jaye nodded in agreement as Heavy Duty walked over and picked up the lieutenant once more. "And should it turn out that Aliskevicz is indeed the real threat, then we'll wait until she is back on duty and arrest her again," she said while getting up from her seat. "All right, Breaker contact Hawk and tell him that it was potentially a false accusation... and double-check Aliskevicz's track record."

"Are you sure about letting her go just like that?" Breaker asked, raising an eyebrow as Lady Jaye motioned for Heavy Duty to start heading back upstairs.

"Yes. Even if she talked, who would believe her? If she tried to file a lawsuit, who would she file it against? Remember, as far as the outside world is concerned, we don't exist. Hard to sue someone who doesn't exist. Her track record even indicated that she was always an 'oddball' to the Air Force squadron she is a part of," Lady Jaye said. She motioned again to the stairs, where Heavy Duty and Snake Eyes were already waiting at the top of. Scarlett was no longer surprised that the ninja had made it up without anyone noticing; it was something he'd trained to do.

"We should leave her somewhere and then Breaker will call the captain and tell her where Aliskevicz is, I have a feeling that the captain will be more lenient with her than the colonel will," Duke said as he joined the group heading to the borrowed K9 van. "We will need to return to the Pit after this; the Secretary of Defense apparently was too cross about the Washington DC attacks to finish the work between him and Hawk, so we're all headed back later this morning," he added, checking a watch to see that it was getting close to one in the morning.

"As long as Ace isn't flying, I'll be great," Scarlett said as she climbed into the van.

"...then it's that apprentice of his flying the C-17 then."

"Still just as bad."

"Then it's the both of them flying."

The argument continued even as the K9 unit pulled away from its parking spot and sped back toward the city proper. It was going to be a long morning for Alpha Team.

* * *

><p>Clarence Jones was a sensible man. He paid his taxes, supported his country, loved baseball, and overall at first glance was the model American citizen. His <em>normal<em> job was that of an office accountant, working with numbers all during the day. But even he wouldn't have been able to explain how he got himself caught up in the petty squabbles that reigned supreme behind the façade of smiles, politeness, and 'we'll-help-you-to-the-best-of-our-ability' attitudes that consisted of the United States Air Force heirarchy. Somehow he tangled with one of the more ruthless players in the power-struggle, and was now 'doing time' so to speak until the officer in question decided she'd tortured him enough.

Praise was the officer who had caught him in the act of sending a letter to one of her archenemies (in his defense, Jones hadn't realized the letter was there in the first place), and instead of charging him with treason for sending out sensitive information, she asked him to do odd jobs such as 'keeping an eye' on that person, or tailing another person. That was about it.

Right now she was leaning against the wall at their prearranged meeting place, pondering over the information he had just given her. "What finally made their decision to let her go?" she finally asked, turning to face him. She wasn't afraid of him ratting her out; he knew her well enough that potential informers were eventually absorbed into her operations, the ones that had a 50/50 chance for success.

He had no intention of doing that.

"I think it was because Lieutenant Aliskevicz talked too much and cracked too quickly under interrogation," he finally said, remembering the conversation that the soldiers were having before dropping off the unconscious lieutenant on a park bench.

"Does anyone else know where she is at this moment?"

"Captain Preston picked her up five minutes after the K9 van left, ma'am."

Praise uttered a soft curse as she turned briefly to the side as though to check for eavesdroppers. _Clearly_ this wasn't in her plan book. "Well then, I want you to hire a mercenary or two to bring them both in, and make sure they cannot trace the request back to me. Just don't hire that chatty one I've heard all sorts of stories about," she added as an afterthought.

"No ma'am, in fact, I have a better idea for someone, she's an extremely good hunter and assassin..."

"I don't want either of them dead. If you return two body bags to me, then it will be you who will be facing consequences," Praise said coldly, turning to the man so that her ice blue eyes settled on his, as if to emphasize her point further.

Jones nodded quickly, and then remembered something that she had said. "Two ma'am? I assume the captain going to be a target as well?"

Praise turned to face him, her face turning into one of thoughtfulness. "Yes, I didn't think it was a bad idea," she said, nodding slowly as she spoke. "It is the only way the lieutenant will return to Washington DC without too much of a fuss, if her friend is in custody with her." Praise looked at the messenger and said, "Good thinking."

Jones blinked, before replying slowly, "Thank you... ma'am?" His voice lilted into that of a question as he replayed everything in his head just to make sure he understood what just happened. Did he really receive a compliment from the absolutely-hard-to-impress-employer? But by the time he looked back at to where Praise had been standing to ask for her clarification, the elusive woman was long gone, leaving him standing alone in the dark next to the lonely lamppost on the Washington DC street. Then he turned around and began to look for the right mercenary for the task at hand. While Praise might not be a big fan of the infamous Merc with a Mouth, Jones liked him alright. A definite bonus was that he knew how to attract the mercenary's attention.

As long as Praise didn't know and the mercenary was paid well, there was no need for one party to find out about the other.

**A/N: For the record, the term 'Southern Ocean' refers to the waters surrounding Antarctica. I didn't make that up. Also, PLEASE tell me if anyone was OOC (I do realize that some of the characters, for example: Clutch, Ace and Lady Jaye, were a part of the cartoons but I imagined this story in the movie continuity.) This story is not only a stand-alone, but a sort of a 'sequel' to Mistaken Identity. As ever, G.I. Joe and all related media belong to Hasbro, and 'Merc with a Mouth' aka Deadpool belongs to Marvel. Any other unfamiliar character names are mine. **


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